UKGC praises 'successful implementation' of credit card ban
The ban on credit cards in gambling has proven to be a success
Back in early 2020, the credit card ban came into effect in the United Kingdom. This essentially banned the use of credit cards to fund gambling in all forms whether it's on a scratchcard or at a no wagering casino.
Over a year later, the UK Gambling Commission did an interim evaluation on the credit ban and discovered that the “action is popular among consumers and has not resulted in harmful unintended consequences.”
Ban introduced to “add another layer of protection for consumers,” says Gambling Commission
In April 2020, the ban was created to add extra protection for consumers and “add friction to the process of gambling with borrowed money.” This report comes over a year after the ban and was based upon an online tracker survey with around 2,000 adults over 18 and Consumer Voice research completed by 2CV that involved an eight-day online programme with 30 respondents.
Ultimately, this report found that “support for the ban among consumers has been largely positive, qualitative data from consumers supports the conclusion that the ban helps people to gamble within their means and retain control.”
On top of this, there has been “no increase in reports of illegal money lending related to gambling” and “bank data showed no observed spike for credit card gamblers in money transfers in the three months after the ban.”
Next steps
The Gambling Commission stated that “ongoing monitoring of behaviours is important to ensure there is not an increase in harmful forms of funding gambling activity.” Furthermore, the NatCen Social Research has been commissioned to conduct a full evaluation of the ban which is scheduled for completion in early 2023 with the Gambling Commission using these to inform future policy.
“Protecting consumers is at the heart of everything we do, we introduced this policy as part of our multifaceted work to reduce gambling harm,” said Andrew Rhodes, Interim Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission.
“The successful implementation of the ban across the industry and the impact on consumer behaviour and financial spend we have monitored so far is an encouraging sign that the ban has reduced consumer reliance on gambling with borrowed money.”